Method and apparatus for wireless communication using modulation, coding schemes, and transport block sizes

ABSTRACT

A method of processing a signal received over a wireless link may utilize sharing of Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) and Transport Block Size (TBS) data. At least one parameter is obtained including a sub-carrier spacing of a transport format. A modulation order and a transport block size may be detected, based on the at least one parameter. The signal received over the wireless link is then processed, based on the detected modulation order and the transport block size. An apparatus may perform the embodiments of the method to process the received signal.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/015,945, filed in the United States Patent and Trademark Office onJun. 22, 2018, which claims the benefit of priority from Korean PatentApplication Nos. 10-2017-0079957, filed on Jun. 23, 2017 and10-2017-0176248, filed on Dec. 20, 2017, in the Korean IntellectualProperty Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated by referenceherein in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a wireless communicationmethod and apparatus using Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS), andTransport Block Sizes (TBS). More particularly, embodiments of theinventive concept relate to ways of sharing MCS and TBS parameters.

DISCUSSION OF THE RELATED ART

Modern wireless communication systems may be designed to support aflexible communication configuration that may adaptively change the datathroughput according to a particular communication environment. Atransmitting side and a receiving side of a communication system maycommonly recognize a specific communication configuration from among aplurality of communication configurations and communicate with eachother according to the specifically recognized communicationconfiguration. An overhead required for sharing the communicationconfiguration between the transmitting side and the receiving side mayoccur. As each of the wireless communication systems evolve, more andmore communication configurations are defined, and thus the overheadutilized for sharing the communication configurations may increase.Although there is increased flexibility when a particular wirelesscommunication system supports various communication configurations,reducing the overhead utilized for sharing the communicationconfigurations may be a factor to increase efficiency of the wirelesscommunication system.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the inventive concept provides a method and apparatus forwireless communication that efficiently shares various communicationconfigurations in a wireless communication system.

According to an embodiment of the inventive concept, there is provided amethod of processing a signal received over a wireless link includingobtaining at least one parameter including sub-carrier spacing;detecting a modulation order and a transport block size, based on the atleast one parameter; and processing the received signal, based on thedetected modulation order and the transport block size.

According to an embodiment of the inventive concept, there is provided amethod of processing a signal received over a wireless link includingobtaining downlink control information; extracting at least one fieldcorresponding to at least one of a modulation order, a physical resourceblock count, and a transport block size from the downlink controlinformation; identifying at least one value of the modulation order, thephysical resource block count, and the transport block size, based on avalue of the extracted at least one field; and processing the receivedsignal, based on the identified at least one value.

The identifying of the transport block size includes calculating thetransport block size from the value of the first field, based on apredefined function, and the predefined function comprises a monotoneincreasing function having a part with a slope greater than 1.

According to an embodiment of the inventive concept, there is provided amethod of processing a signal received over a wireless link includingobtaining an adjustment indicator indicating a change of a value of atleast one of a modulation order and a transport block size index;updating the modulation order and the transport block size index bychanging the value of the at least one of the modulation order and thetransport block size index in response to the adjustment indicator; andprocessing the received signal, based on the updated modulation orderand the updated transport block size index.

According to an embodiment of the inventive concept, there is provided awireless communication apparatus including a processor; and a memoryaccessed by the processor and storing a plurality of instructionsexecuted by the processor to perform the wireless communication method.

According to an embodiment of the inventive concept A wirelesscommunication apparatus includes an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC); an application specific instruction set processor (ASIP)in communication with the ASIC; a main processor configured to controlthe ASIC and ASIP; a first memory coupled to the ASIP that stores atleast instructions executed by the ASIP; and a second memory comprisinga main memory coupled to the main processor and stores instructionsexecuted by the main processor; at least one antenna that receiveswireless signals over a downlink and transmits signals over an uplink;and a transceiver configured to receive and amplify the signals receivedfrom the at least one antenna, and shift the amplified signals from aradio frequency (RF) band to a baseband, and provide the shifted signalsto a signal processor in communication with the main processor, and thetransceiver configured to shift signals provided from the signalprocessor in communication with the main processor from a baseband to anRF band, amplify the shifted signals, and provide the amplified signalsto the antenna for transmission. The main processor is configured toobtain at least one parameter of a received signal comprising asub-carrier spacing of a transport format, detect a modulation orderand/or a transport block size, based on the at least one parameter ofthe received signal; and process the received signal, based on at leastone of the detected modulation order and the transport block size.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the inventive concept will be more appreciated by aperson of ordinary skill in the art with reference to the attacheddrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communication systemincluding a base station and user equipment, in accordance with anexample embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmission timeinterval transmitted through a downlink of FIG. 1 , in accordance withan example embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate examples of a table used to share a transportformat in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a wireless communication method inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of operation S140 of FIG.4 in accordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table of FIG. 5 inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIGS. 7A through 7C are diagrams illustrating examples of the table ofFIG. 5 in accordance with example embodiments of the inventive concept;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of operation S140 of FIG.4 in accordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a wireless communication method inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating downlink control information inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a wireless communication method inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept;

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating downlink control information inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept; and

FIG. 13 is an example block diagram of a wireless communication devicein accordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description is provided to assist a person ofordinary skill in the art in gaining a comprehensive understanding ofthe methods, apparatuses, and/or systems described herein to practicethe appended claims without undue experimentation. A person of ordinaryskill in the art should understand that various changes, modifications,and equivalents of the systems, apparatuses, and/or methods describedherein may be made without departing from the scope of the scope ofembodiments of the inventive concept. Descriptions of functions andconstructions that are well-known to one of ordinary skill in the artmay be omitted for increased clarity and conciseness.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communication system10 including a base station 100 and user equipment 200 in accordancewith an example embodiment of the inventive concept. The wirelesscommunication system 10 may include, but is not limited to, a 5thgeneration (5G) wireless system, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, anLTE-Advanced system, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, aGlobal System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system, a Wireless LocalArea Network (WLAN) system or any other wireless communication system.Hereinafter, a person of ordinary skill in the art is to understand thatalthough the wireless communication system 10 is mainly described withreference to the 5G system and/or the LTE system, the exampleembodiments of the inventive concept are not limited thereto.

The base station 100 may be generally referred to as a fixed stationthat communicates with the user equipment 200 and/or another basestation and may communicate with the user equipment 200 and/or anotherbase station to exchange data and control information. For example, thebase station 100 may be referred to as a Node B, an evolved Node B(eNB), a sector, a site, a Base Transceiver System (BTS), an AccessPoint (AP), a Relay Node, Remote Radio Head (RRH), a radio unit (RU), asmall cell, or the like. In the present specification, the base station100 or cell may be construed as having a comprehensive meaningindicating some areas or functions covered by a Base Station Controller(BSC) in CDMA, Node-B in WCDMA, eNB in LTE or a sector (a site) and mayinclude various coverage areas such as a: megacell, macrocell,microcell, picocell, femtocell and relay node, RRH, RU, small cellcommunication range, and the like.

The user equipment 200, which is a wireless communication device, may bereferred to as various devices that may be fixed or mobile and maycommunicate with the base station 100 to transmit and receive dataand/or control information. For example, the user equipment 200 may bereferred to as terminal equipment, a mobile station (MS), a mobileterminal (MT), a user terminal (UT), a subscriber station (SS), awireless device, a handheld device, or the like. The aforementioned listis not a limit on the types of devices that may be a user equipment 200.

A wireless communication network between the base station 100 and theuser equipment 200 may support communication of multiple users bysharing available network resources. For example, in the wirelesscommunication network, information may be transferred through variousmultiple access methods such as a code division multiple access (CDMA),a frequency division multiple access (FDMA), a time division multipleaccess (TDMA), an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA),Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), OFDM-FDMA,OFDM-TDMA, OFDM-CDMA, and the like. Other multiple access protocols,other than those discussed herein above, may also be used.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the base station 100 and the user equipment 200 maycommunicate with each other through an uplink UL 12 and a downlink DL14. In a wireless system such as, for example, an LTE system and/or anLTE-Advanced system, the downlink DL 14 and the uplink UL 12 maytransmit control information through a control channel such as aPhysical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), a Physical Control FormatIndicator Channel (PCFICH), a Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel(PHICH), a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), an Enhanced PhysicalDownlink Control Channel (EPDCCH), etc. and may transmit data through adata channel such as a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PDSCH), aPhysical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), etc. The control information mayalso be transmitted using an EPDCCH (enhanced PDCCH or extended PDCCH).

As discussed herein, the transmitting and receiving of a signal througha physical control channel such as the PUCCH, the PUSCH, the PDCCH, theEPDCCH, or the PDSCH may be expressed as “transmitting and receiving thePUCCH, the PUSCH, the PDCCH, the EPDCCH and the PDSCH”. Also, thetransmitting or receiving the PDCCH or transmitting or receiving asignal through the PDCCH may include transmitting or receiving theEPDCCH or transmitting or receiving the signal through the EPDCCH. Forexample, the PDCCH may be the PDCCH or the EPDCCH, and may include boththe PDCCH and the EPDCCH.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the base station 100 may include a signalprocessor 120, a transceiver 140, and an antenna 160. In someembodiments of the inventive concept, the transceiver 140 may include afilter, a mixer, a power amplifier (PA), and a low noise amplifier(LNA). The transceiver 140 may transmit signals through the antenna 160and the downlink DL 14 that is to be received by the user equipment. Forexample, the transceiver 140 may shift a signal provided from the signalprocessor 120 from a baseband to a radio frequency (RF) band, forexample, through the mixer, amplify the shifted signal, for example, bythe PA, and provide the amplified signal to the antenna 160 fortransmission. The transceiver 140 may also process signals receivedthrough the uplink UL 12 and the antenna 160 and may provide theprocessed signals to the signal processor 120. For example, thetransceiver 140 may amplify the signal received via the antenna 160,e.g., through the LNA, shift the amplified signal from the RF band to abaseband, e.g., through the mixer, and provide the shifted signal to thesignal processor 120.

With further regard to the base station 100, the signal processor 120may include a Medium Access Control (MAC) block 122, a physical (PHY)block 124, and a scheduler 126. The MAC block 122 and the PHY block 124may perform operations corresponding to a MAC layer and a PHY layer (ora physical layer) of the wireless communication system 10, respectively.For example, the MAC block 122 may perform logic-channel multiplexing,Hybrid Automatic Repeat and Request HARQ retransmission, scheduling ofthe uplink UL 12 and the downlink DL 14, and Carrier Aggregation CAcontrol, etc. The PHY block 124 may also receive a transport block fromthe MAC block 122 for the downlink DL 14, and may perform cyclicredundancy correction CRC insertion, encoding, rate matching,scrambling, modulation, and antenna mapping, and so on. Although shownas separated in FIG. 1 , in some embodiments of the inventive concept,the MAC block 122 and the PHY block 124 may be implemented as a unit.

The scheduler 126 may control the MAC block 122 and the PHY block 124.The scheduler 126 may determine a communication configuration forcommunication with the user equipment 200 based on the states of theuplink UL 12 and the downlink DL 14 and the states of links between theuser equipment 200 and other user equipments. For example, the scheduler126 may determine a transport format TF for the transport block. Thetransport format TF may include a Transport Block Size TBS, Modulationand Coding Scheme MCS, antenna mapping, and the like. The scheduler 126may control the MAC block 122 according to the transport block size TBSof the determined transport format TF and control the PHY block 124according to the transport block size TBS and antenna mapping of the TF.For example, the wireless communication system 10 may define aquadrature phase-shift keying QPSK (or 4QAM), 16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM and1024QAM as modulation schemes. The modulation schemes may be representedas a modulation order MO of the QAM. Also, the wireless communicationsystem 10 may define 16 to 105528, or more, as transport block sizesTBSs that represent a size of information bits that may be transmitted.

A person of ordinary skill in the art should understands that in thebase station 100 and the user equipment UE 200 as shown, either the basestation 100 and/or the user equipment 200 may utilize a separatereceiver and a transmitter rather than a transceiver 140, 240. Inaddition, the base station 100 and/or the user equipment 200 may havemore than one transceiver, or receiver and a transmitter. For example, asmartphone may have a transceiver for communication with a base stationof a cellular network. However, a smartphone may also use, for example,Bluetooth, and/or WiFi for respective operations, and have additionaltransceivers (and antennas) for these various protocols with devices,such as, for example, speakers, a headset, payment systems, etc.

In some embodiments of the inventive concept, the transport format TFmay include a sub-carrier spacing SCS, and the scheduler 126 may controlthe PHY block 124 according to the sub-carrier spacing SCS of thedetermined transport format TF. For example, the wireless communicationsystem 10 may define 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, and 240 kHz as thesub-carrier spacing SCS. The sub-carrier spacing SCS may be related tothe transport block size TBS and the modulation scheme.

In some embodiments of the inventive concept, the transport format TFmay include a number of symbols per transmission time interval TTI andthe scheduler 126 may determine the PHY block 124 according to thenumber of symbols per transmission time interval TTI of the determinedtransport format TF. For example, the wireless communication system 10may define 1 to 14 as being the symbol count per slot N_SYM. The symbolcount per slot N_SYM may be related to the transport block size TBS andthe modulation scheme.

In some embodiments of the inventive concept, the transport format TFmay include a maximum bandwidth per component carrier CC and thescheduler 126 may control the PHY block 124 according to the value ofthe maximum bandwidth per component carrier CC of the determinedtransport format TF. For example, the wireless communication system 10may define 100 MHz and 400 MHz as the maximum bandwidths according tothe component carrier CC. The maximum bandwidth may be related to thetransport block size TBS and the modulation scheme.

In some embodiments of the inventive concept, the transport format TFmay include a number of subcarriers per physical resource block PRB, andthe scheduler 126 may control the PHY block 124 according to the numberof subcarriers per physical resource block PRB of the determinedtransport format TF. For example, the wireless communication system 10may define values before and after 12 as the number of subcarriers per aplurality of physical resource blocks PRBs. The number of subcarriersper physical resource block PRB may be related to the transport blocksize TBS and the modulation scheme.

With continued reference to FIG. 1 , the scheduler 126 may transmit atleast one parameter according to the determined transport format TF tothe user equipment 200 over the downlink DL 14. The user equipment 200may detect a transport format TF of a signal (e.g., a signal of a SCHregion) that the base station 100 transmits over the downlink DL 14based on the received at least one parameter and process the receivedsignal according to the detected transport format TF. A parameter mayhave a value directly indicating communication configurations includedin the transport format TF, such as a modulation order MO, the transportblock size TBS, the number of symbols per time transmission intervalTTI, the maximum bandwidth per CC, and the number of subcarriers per PRBand may have a value indirectly indicating the transport format TF,e.g., a value capable of deriving the transport format TF. The at leastone parameter according to the transport format TF may be provided tothe user equipment 200 through downlink control information DCI of thePHY layer in some embodiments of the inventive concept, and may beprovided to the user equipment 200 through an upper layer, e.g., MAC orRadio Resource Control RRC signaling in some embodiments.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the user equipment 200 may include a signalprocessor 220, a transceiver 240, and an antenna 260. The transceiver240 may receive signals through the downlink DL 14 and the antenna 260and may transmit signals through the antenna 260 and the uplink UL 12.The antenna 260 may be an antenna array.

Similar to the base station 100, the signal processor 220 of the userequipment 200 may include a MAC block 222 and a PHY block 224. The MACblock 222 and the PHY block 224 may perform operations corresponding tothe MAC layer and the PHY layer of the wireless communication system 10,respectively. For example, the PHY block 224 may perform antennademapping, demodulation, descrambling, decoding, cyclic redundancy CRCcheck, etc. for the downlink DL 14. Although shown as being separateblocks in FIG. 1 , in some embodiments, the MAC block 222 and the PHYblock 224 may be implemented as a unit.

The controller 226 may obtain at least one parameter according to thetransport format TF determined by the scheduler 126 of the base station100 and the controller 226 may detect the transport format TF from theobtained parameter. The controller 226 may control the PHY block 224according to a modulation and coding scheme MCS of the detectedtransport format TF. The PHY block 224 may process (e.g. demodulate) asignal under control of the controller 226. The controller 226 maycontrol the MAC block 222 according to the transport block size TBS ofthe detected transport format TF. The MAC block 222 may process thesignal under control of the controller 226.

As described below, according to example embodiments of the inventiveconcept, the base station 100 and the user equipment 200 may efficientlyshare the transport format TF in various manners. Accordingly, theefficiency of the wireless communication system 10 may be increased byadaptively utilizing an optimal transport format TF, e.g., an optimalcommunication configuration.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a transmission timeinterval TTI 5 transmitted through the downlink DL 14 of FIG. 1 inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept. In thewireless communication system 10, the downlink DL 14 data may betransmitted in TTI units, and one TTI unit may be defined as a timeinterval including a plurality of symbols (e.g., OFDM symbols). Forexample, a TTI in LTE may be a sub-frame having a length of 1 ms, and aTTI in 5G may be a scalable TTI. Hereinafter, FIG. 2 will be describedwith reference to FIG. 1 .

Referring to FIG. 2 , the TTI 5 may include a two-time regionmultiplexed by Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), e.g., a control regionfor transmission of a control channel (e.g., PDCCH, PHICH, etc.) and adata region for transmission of a shared channel (e.g., PDSCH, etc.).For example, the control region may include a plurality of symbols forthe control channel, and the data region may include remaining symbolsfor the shared channel.

The control region may include information about the downlink DL 14. Forexample, in an LTE system, the control region may include a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) including a location of a PDSCH anddownlink control information DCI, a Physical Control Format IndicatorChannel (PCFICH) indicating a number of OFDM symbols included in thecontrol region, and a Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH)including a response signal to an uplink Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request(HARD) Acknowledgment (ACK)/Negative-Acknowledgment (NACN) signal. Thedownlink control information DCI transmitted through the PDSCH mayinclude uplink resource allocation information and downlink resourceallocation information and may include parameters for sharing thetransport format TF as described above with reference to FIG. 1 .

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate examples of a table used to share a transportformat TF in an LTE system. Specifically, FIG. 3A shows a part of a MCStable T_MCS, and FIG. 3B shows a part of a TBS table T_TBS. Hereinafter,FIGS. 3A and 3B will be described with reference to FIG. 1 .

The scheduler 126 may determine one of a plurality of modulation schemesfor the downlink DL 14 based on a channel state of the downlink DL 14.For example, the scheduler 126 may increase a bandwidth efficiency byadopting a high modulation order MO in a case where the channel state ofthe downlink DL 14 is good, while the scheduler 126 may maintain arobust transmission by adopting a low modulation order MO to overcomethe channel state in a case where the channel state of the downlink DL14 is not good. Thus, a method of adjusting the modulation and codingscheme MCS according to the channel state may be referred to as linkadaptation. The link adaptation may be implemented by adjusting the MCSto enhance a transmission rate of a wireless system adaptively to astate of a wireless channel varying over time.

Referring to FIG. 3A, the MCS table T_MCS may include MCS indexes I_MCSof 0 to 31. The MCS indexes I_MCS of 0 to 28 of the MCS table T_MCS maybe used for HARQ initial transmission. The MCS indexes I_MCS of 29 to 31may be used for HARQ retransmission. Each of the MCS indexes I_MCS maycorrespond to one of three different modulation schemes. For example, asshown in FIG. 3A, the MCS indexes I_MCS of 0 to 4 may correspond toQPSK, the MCS indexes I_MCS of 5 to 10 may correspond to 16QAM, the MCSindexes I_MCS of 11 to 19 may correspond to 64QAM, and the MCS indexesI_MCS of 20 to 27 may correspond to 256QAM. As such, a plurality of MCSindexes I_MCS corresponding to the same modulation scheme may bepresent, which means that each of the MCS indexes I_MCS corresponding tothe same modulation scheme may use a code of different code rate. Also,the MCS indexes I_MCS of 28 to 31 of the MCS table T_MCS may be used todistinguish a modulation scheme used for HARQ retransmission. As shownin FIG. 3A, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM and 256QAM may be used for HARQretransmission. As a result, the MCS table T_MCS may support up to256QAM. Also, as shown in FIG. 3A, the MCS table T_MCS may include TBSindexes I_TBS corresponding to the MCS indexes I_MCS. The TBS indexI_TBS may be used to detect a TBS as described below with reference toFIG. 3B.

The use of the MCS table T_MCS of FIG. 3A may be restricted in a casewhere a modulation scheme specified in the wireless communication system10 changes or a parameter underlying the modulation scheme changes. Forexample, the use of the MCS table T_MCS of FIG. 3A may be restricted ina case where an additional modulation order MO such as 1024QAM andadjustable sub-carrier spacing SCS are added according to a 5G system.Further, due to the restricted MCS table T_MCS, it may not be easy toconfigure an optimal MCS in consideration of the parameter.

Referring to FIG. 3B, the TBS table T_TBS may include TBSs correspondingto pairs of TBS indexes I_TBS and a physical resource block count N_PRB.In the LTE system, since a size of a transmission resource may beallocated from 1 PRB to 110 PRBs to the user equipment 200, 110 TBS maybe defined for each TBS index I_TBS. FIG. 3B shows TBSs according to theTBS indexes I_TBS of 0 to 10 and the physical resource block count N_PRBof 1 to 1, as part of the TBS table T_TBS.

In a case where the physical resource block count N_PRB specified in thewireless communication system 10 changes, the use of the TBS table T_TBSof FIG. 3B may be restricted. For example, in a case where the physicalresource block count N_PRB (e.g., 275) larger than 110 according to the5G system is defined, the use of the TBS table T_TBS of FIG. 3B may berestricted. Also, due to the restricted TBS table T_TBS, it may not beeasy to configure an optimal TBS in consideration of the parameter.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a wireless communication method inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept. Forexample, a method S100 of FIG. 4 may be performed by the signalprocessor 220 for processing a signal received over the downlink DL 14of FIG. 1 . As shown in FIG. 4 , the method S100 of FIG. 4 may include aplurality of operations S120, S140, and S160. Hereinafter, FIG. 4 willbe described with reference to FIG. 1 .

In operation S120, an operation of acquiring at least one parameter maybe performed. The at least one parameter may be transmitted to the userequipment 200 to share a transport format TF determined by the scheduler126 of the base station 100 with the user equipment 200, as describedabove with reference to FIG. 1 . The controller 226 may obtain the atleast one parameter provided from the base station 100. In someembodiments, the at least one parameter may be provided to the userequipment 200 through downlink control information DCI of a PHY layerand may be provided to the user equipment 200 through an upper layersuch as MAC or RRC signaling.

In some embodiments, the at least one parameter may include sub-carrierspacing SCS. As described with reference to FIG. 1 , the wirelesscommunication system 10 may define a plurality of sub-carrier spacingSCSs and the base station 100 may transmit a parameter indicating onesub-carrier spacing SCS to the user equipment 200. The controller 226may obtain the sub-carrier spacing SCS and detect MCS and a transportblock size TBS based on the sub-carrier spacing SCS in subsequentoperations.

In operation S140, an operation of detecting a modulation order MO andthe transport block size TBS may be performed. For example, thecontroller 226 may detect the modulation order MO and the transportblock size TBS based on the at least one parameter obtained in operationS120. Examples of operation S140 will be described below with referenceto FIGS. 5 through 8 .

In operation S160, an operation of processing the received signal may beperformed. For example, the controller 226 may control the PHY block 224and the MAC block 222 based on the modulation order MO and the transportblock size TBS detected in operation S140. The PHY block 224 and the MACblock 222 may process the signal provided from the transceiver 240 undercontrol of the controller 226. For example, the PHY block 224 maydemodulate the signal based on the detected modulation order MO, and theMAC block 222 may generate a MAC service data unit (SDU) based on thedetected transport block size TBS.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of operation S140 of FIG.4 in accordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept. Asdescribed with reference to FIG. 4 , in operation S140′ of FIG. 5 , anoperation of detecting a modulation order MO and a transport block sizeTBS may be performed, and as shown in FIG. 5 , in operation S140′ mayinclude operations S141 and S142. In some embodiments, operation S140′of FIG. 5 may be performed by the controller 226 of FIG. 1 .Hereinafter, FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIG. 1 .

In operation S141, an operation referring to at least one table may beperformed. For example, the controller 226 may refer to a table T50 byaccessing a memory storing the table T50. The table T50 may be definedby the wireless communication system 10. The base station 100 and theuser equipment 200 may commonly store the table T50. As described laterwith reference to FIG. 6 and the like, the table T50 may includeinformation corresponding to parameters. The controller 226 may refer toa table or a plurality of tables in some embodiments. Examples of thetable T50 will be described later with reference to FIGS. 6, 7A to 7Cand 8 .

In operation S142, an operation of detecting a modulation order MOand/or a transport block size TBS corresponding to a parameter may beperformed. In some embodiments, the controller 226 may detect themodulation order MO corresponding to a pair of the MCS index I_MCS andthe sub-carrier spacing SCS as the parameter by referring to the tableT50. In some embodiments, the controller 226 may detect the transportblock size TBS corresponding to the physical resource block count N_PRBas the parameter by referring to the table T50.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the table T50 of FIG. 5in accordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept.Specifically, FIG. 6 shows an MCS table T_MCS′ including modulationorders MOs and TBS indexes I_TBS corresponding to pairs of an MCS indexI_MCS and sub-carrier spacing SCS. It is noted that the MCS table T_MCSof FIG. 6 is only an example, and sub-carrier spacing SCS, modulationorder MO and TBS index I_TBS that are different from shown in FIG. 6 maybe possible.

Compared to the MC Table T_MCS of FIG. 3A, the MCS table T_MCS' of FIG.6 may include the modulation order MO and the TBS index I_TBS accordingto the sub-carrier spacing SCS as well as the MCS index I_MCS. Asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 1 , the sub-carrier spacing SCSmay be related to a modulation scheme and a transport block size TBS.For example, when the sub-carrier spacing SCS increases, interferencesbetween adjacent subcarriers may be reduced, and thus a modulationscheme of a high modulation order MO may be used, while when thesub-carrier spacing SCS decreases, the interferences between thesubcarriers may increase, and thus a modulation scheme of a lowmodulation order MO may be used. Also, when the sub-carrier spacing SCSincreases, the number of subcarriers included in a maximum bandwidth ofa component carrier CC may be reduced, thereby reducing the transportblock size TBS, while when the sub-carrier spacing SCS is reduced, thenumber of subcarriers included in the maximum bandwidth of the componentcarrier CC may increase, and thus the transport block size TBS mayincrease.

FIGS. 7A through 7C are diagrams illustrating examples of the table T50of FIG. 5 in accordance with example embodiments of the inventiveconcept. Specifically, FIGS. 7A through 7C show tables for detecting atransport block size TBS using a TBS table in a wireless communicationsystem in which the number of symbols per TTI varies. In FIGS. 7Athrough 7C, the number of symbols per TTI may refer to a symbol countper slot N_SYM. The symbol count per slot N_SYM may range from 1 to k (kis an integer greater than 1).

Referring to FIG. 7A, in some embodiments, a plurality of TBS tablesT_TBS1, T_TBS2, . . . , T_TBSk corresponding to the symbol count pereach of a plurality of slots N_SYM may be used. For example, thecontroller 226 of FIG. 1 may obtain the symbol count per slot N_SYM andselect one TBS table corresponding to the symbol count per slot N_SYMfrom among the plurality of TBS tables T_TBS1, T_TBS2, . . . , T_TBSk.Then, the controller 226 may detect the TBS corresponding to thedetected TBS index I_TBS and the physical resource block count N_PRBfrom the selected TBS table. In some embodiments, 14 TBS tables may beused according to a range of the symbol count per 1 to 14 slots N_SYM.Further, in some embodiments, a wireless communication system 10 maydefine the symbol count per slot N_SYM as predefined values, instead ofdefining the symbol count per slot N_SYM that sequentially increases by1 and the TBS tables corresponding to the symbol count per slot N_SYMmay be used.

Referring to FIG. 7B, in some embodiments of the inventive concept, aplurality of TBS table groups TS_TBS1, TS_TBS2, . . . , TS_TBS2corresponding to the symbol count per each of a plurality of slots N_SYMand a plurality of control format indicators CFIs may be used. Forexample, the TBS tables included in the first TBS table group TS_TBS1may include TBSs optimized according to control format indicators CFIvalues in a case where the symbol count per slot N_SYM is 1. Thecontroller 226 of FIG. 1 may obtain the symbol count per slot N_SYM andmay select a jth TBS table group TS_TBSj (1≤j≤k) corresponding to thesymbol count per slot N_SYM. The controller 226 may obtain the controlformat indicators CFI, select the TBS table T_TBS corresponding to thecontrol format indicators CFI from among the TBS tables included in theselected jth TBS table group TS_TBSj, and detect a transport block sizeTBS corresponding to the TBS index I_TBS and a physical resource blockcount N_PRB with reference to the selected TBS table T_TBS. Thus, byreferring to a plurality of tables, the number of parameters transmittedfrom the base station 100 to the user equipment 200 may be reduced, andthus overhead required for transmission of the parameters, e.g.,overhead for decoding/decoding downlink control information DCI may bereduced.

Referring to FIG. 7C, in some embodiments of the inventive concept, atleast one TBS table and function may be used. For example, as shown inFIG. 7C, a function f having a TBS table T_TBSi corresponding to thesymbol count per slot N_SYM in which i(1≤i≤k), and a transport blocksize TBSi of the TBS table T_TBSi and the symbol count per slot N_SYM asarguments may be used. The controller 226 may then detect the transportblock size TBSi corresponding to the detected TBS index I_TBS and thephysical resource block count N_PRB by referring to the TBS tableT_TBSi. The controller 226 may then calculate the transport block sizeTBS from the detected transport block size TBSi and the obtained symbolcount per slot N_SYM based on the function f.

In some embodiments, the function f may monotonically increase withrespect to the symbol count per slot N_SYM. The number of resourceelements RE that may be used as data may be determined according to avalue of the symbol count per slot N_SYM. A code rate CR may begenerally inversely proportional to the number of resource elements REand the average decoding performance in the same channel environment maybe enhanced as the code rate CR is smaller. Accordingly, as the symbolcount per slot N_SYM increases, the transport block size TBS mayincrease linearly or nonlinearly. For example, the TBS table T_TBSi maycorrespond to the symbol count per slot N_SYM (e.g., i=1) and thefunction f may be defined as a power of the transport block size TBSidetected from the TBS table T_TBSi and the symbol count per slot N_SYM.It will be understood that although FIG. 7C illustrates an example usingone TBS table T_TBSi and one function f, in some embodiments, two ormore TBS tables and/or two or more functions may be used.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of operation S140 of FIG.4 in accordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept. Asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 4 , in operation S140″ of FIG. 8, an operation of detecting a modulation order MO and a transport blocksize TBS may be performed. Operation S140″ may include operations S143and S144. In some embodiments, operation S140″ of FIG. 8 may beperformed by the controller 226 of FIG. 1 . Hereinafter, FIG. 8 will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 1 .

In operation S143, an operation referring to a predefined function maybe performed. For example, the controller 226 may refer to a functionF80 having as an argument at least one parameter defining a transportformat TF. The function F80 may be defined by the wireless communicationsystem 10. The base station 100 and the user equipment 200 may commonlystore the function F80. For example, the function F80 may have at leastone of values directly defining the transport format TF such as thesub-carrier spacing SCS, the modulation order MO, the CFI, the symbolcount per slot N_SYM, and the physical resource block count N_PRB as anargument and may have at least one of values indirectly defining thetransport format TF such as an MCS index I_MCS, a TBS index I_TBS, orthe like. In some embodiments, the controller 226 may refer to two ormore functions.

In operation S144, an operation of calculating a transport block sizeTBS from a parameter may be performed. For example, the controller 226may calculate the transport block size TBS from a function g defined asshown in [Equation 1] below.TBS=g(I_MCS,MO,SCS,CFI,N_SYM,N_PRB,I_TBS)  [Equation 1]

As shown in [Equation 1], the transport block size TBS may be calculatedas the function g of the MCS index I_MCS, the modulation order MO, thesub-carrier spacing SCS, the CFI, the symbol count per slot N_SYM, andthe TBS index I_TBS. As described above with reference to FIG. 3B, thenumber of transport block sizes TBS defined according to the TBS indexI_TBS and the physical resource block count N_PRB may be large. Also,the physical resource block count N_PRB defined by the wirelesscommunication system 10 may increase, and accordingly, a range of thetransport block size TBS may remarkably increase. Also, the transportblock size TBS may be further subdivided to configure an optimizedtransport block size TBS according to the symbol count per slot N_SYMand the CFI. Instead of increasing the size of the TBS table, the rangeand subdivision of the transport block size TBS may be achieved bycalculating the transport block size TBS from a function of parametersrelated to the transport block size TBS.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a wireless communication method inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept. Comparedwith the method S100 of FIG. 4 , a method S200 of FIG. 9 may identify atleast one communication configuration included in a transport format TFfrom downlink control information DCI. As shown in FIG. 9 , the methodS200 of FIG. 9 may include a plurality of operations S220, S240, S260,and S280. In some embodiments, the method S200 of FIG. 9 may beperformed by the signal processor 220 for processing of signals receivedthrough the downlink DL 14 of FIG. 1 . Hereinafter, FIG. 9 will bedescribed with reference to FIG. 1 , and a redundant description betweenFIG. 9 and FIG. 1 will be omitted.

In operation S220, an operation of obtaining the downlink controlinformation DCI may be performed. For example, the controller 226 mayreceive the downlink control information DCI included in a controlregion of FIG. 2 from the PHY block 224.

In operation S240, an operation of extracting at least one field may beperformed. For example, the downlink control information DCI may includeat least one field corresponding to at least one of communicationconfiguration included in the transport format TF, e.g., at least one ofthe modulation order MO, the physical resource block count N_PRB, andthe transport block size TBS and the controller 226 may extract the atleast one field from the downlink control information DCI.

In operation S260, an operation of identifying the at least onecommunication configuration may be performed. The field extracted inoperation S240 may directly indicate a value of the communicationconfiguration in some embodiments and may indirectly indicate the valueof the communication configuration in some embodiments. The controller226 may identify the communication configuration from the field. In thepresent specification, “identification” may be referred to as directlyderiving a result from an input without reference to a lookup table.Then, an operation of processing the received signal according to thecommunication configuration identified in operation S280 may beperformed.

With regard to the flowchart of FIG. 9 , the identifying of the at leastone communication configuration may include identifying of the transportblock size including calculating the transport block size from the valueof the first field, based on a predefined function, and the predefinedfunction may be a monotone increasing function having a part with aslope greater than 1.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating downlink control information DCI inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept. Asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 9 , the downlink controlinformation DCI may include at least one field corresponding to at leastone communication configuration included in the transport format TF.

Referring to FIG. 10 , the downlink control information DCI may includea first field F_MO corresponding to the modulation order MO and having xbits, a second field F_PRB corresponding to the physical resource blockcount N_PRB and having y bits, and a third field F_TBS corresponding tothe transport block size TBS and having z bits. Although the downlinkcontrol information DCI in FIG. 10 includes fields corresponding to allthe modulation order MO, the physical resource block count N_PRB, andthe transport block size TBS, in some embodiments, the information DCImay include only fields corresponding to some of the modulation orderMO, the physical resource block count N_PRB, and the transport blocksize TBS.

In some embodiments of the inventive concept, a field included in thedownlink control information DCI may directly indicate a communicationconfiguration. For example, the first field F_MO may have 3 bits (e.g.,x=3) to represent QPSK (or 4QAM), 16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM, and 1024QAMdefined by a 5G system, have 10 bits (e.g., y=10) to indicate themaximum number of 550 physical resource blocks N_PRB defined by the 5Gsystem, and “log₂(TBSmax)” bits derived from a maximum value TBSmax ofthe transport block size TBS defined by the 5G system.

In some embodiments of the inventive concept, a field included in thedownlink control information DCI may indirectly indicate a communicationconfiguration. For example, the number of bits z of the third fieldF_TBS is limited due to a large range of the transport block size TBS,while the transport block size TBS may be derived from a value of thethird field F_TBS according to a predefined rule. For example, in a casewhere, for example, a, b, c, d, and e are bits included in the thirdfield F_TBS, the transport block size TBS may be derived as shown in[Equation 2] below.TBS=2a*3b5c*7d*11e*  [Equation 2]

In some embodiments of the inventive concept, the third field F_TBS mayrepresent the TBS index I_TBS. In other words, compared with theexamples of FIGS. 3A and 3B, the TBS index I_TBS may be directlytransmitted to the user equipment 200 through the downlink controlinformation DCI instead of being detected from a TBS table or the like.In some embodiments of the inventive concept, the transport block sizeTBS may be detected using the TBS tables T_TBS1, T_TBS2, . . . , T_TBSkcorresponding to the symbol count per slot N_SYM. Also, in someembodiments of the inventive concept, the transport block size TBS maybe detected using one TBS table T_TBSi and the function f, as describedabove with reference to FIG. 7C.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a wireless communication method inaccordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept. Comparedwith the method S100 of FIG. 4 and the method S200 of FIG. 9 , a methodS300 of FIG. 11 may change the transport format TF using the downlinkcontrol information DCI including an adjustment indicator. As shown inFIG. 11 , the method S300 of FIG. 11 may include a plurality ofoperations S320, S340, S360, and S380. In some embodiments of theinventive concept, the method S300 of FIG. 11 may be performed by thesignal processor 220 for processing of signals received through thedownlink DL 14 of FIG. 2 . Hereinafter, FIG. 11 will be described withreference to FIG. 1 , and any description of FIG. 11 that is redundantwith regard to the description of FIGS. 1 and 4 will be omitted.

In operation S320, there may be a determining of the modulation order MOand the transport block size TBS. For example, the controller 226 of theuser equipment 200 may use the tables T_MCS and T_TBS respectively shownin FIGS. 3A and 3B, or determine the modulation order MO and thetransport block size TBS in accordance with the example embodiments ofthe inventive concept described above.

In operation S340, an operation of determining whether the adjustmentindicator is received may be performed. For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the downlink control information DCI may include a field correspondingto the adjustment indicator. The field corresponding to the adjustmentindicator may include a bit indicating whether the adjustment indicatoris valid. The controller 226 may determine whether the adjustmentindicator is received based on the bit indicating validity. An exampleof the adjustment indicator will be subsequently described withreference to FIG. 12 . In a case where it is determined at operationS340 that the adjustment indicator is received, operation S360 may beperformed subsequently. However, in a case where it is determined atoperation S340 that the adjustment indication is not received, operationS380 may be performed subsequently.

In operation S360, an operation of updating at least one of themodulation order MO and the transport block size TBS may be performed.For example, the controller 226 may change at least one of themodulation order MO and the transport block size TBS determined inoperation S320 based on the adjustment indicator. For example, thecontroller 226 may increase or decrease the modulation order MO andincrease or decrease the transmission block size TBS based on theadjustment indicator.

In operation S380, an operation of processing the received signalaccording to the updated modulation order MO and the transport blocksize TBS may be performed.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating the downlink control information DCIin accordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept. Asshown in FIG. 12 , the downlink control information DCI may include anadjustment field F_ADJ corresponding to an adjustment indicator. Theadjustment field F_ADJ corresponding to the adjustment indicator mayinclude a validity bit E indicating whether the adjustment indicator isvalid. In addition, the adjustment field F_ADJ includes a firstadjustment field MO_ADJ corresponding to the modulation order MO andhaving x′ bits, and a second adjustment field TBS_ADJ corresponding tothe transport block size TBS and having z′ bits. In some embodiments ofthe inventive concept, the adjustment field F_ADJ corresponding to theadjustment indicator may be different than shown in FIG. 12 , and mayinclude only one of the first and second adjustment fields MO_ADJ andTBS_ADJ.

According to an example embodiment of the inventive concept, theadjustment indicator may indicate at least one of an increase/decrease,a change amount, and a change value of the modulation order MO. In someembodiments of the inventive concept, the first adjustment field MO_ADJmay include at least one bit that indicates the increase/decrease of themodulation order MO, and the controller 226 may increase or decrease themodulation order MO by a predefined offset according to a value of thefirst adjustment field MO_ADJ. In some embodiments of the inventiveconcept, the first adjustment field MO_ADJ may include at least one bitindicating the change amount in the modulation order MO, and thecontroller 226 may be configured to reflect the amount of change to themodulation order MO according to the value of the modulation fieldMO_ADJ. In some embodiments of the inventive concept, the firstadjustment field MO_ADJ may include at least one bit indicating thechange value of the modulation order MO, and the controller 226 mayupdate the modulation order MO as the change value according to thevalue of the first adjustment field MO_ADJ.

According to an example embodiment of the inventive concept, theadjustment indicator may include at least one of an increase/decrease, achange amount, and a change value of the transport block size TBS. Insome embodiments of the inventive concept, the second adjustment fieldTBS_ADJ may include at least one bit indicating an increase/decrease ofthe transport block size TBS, and the controller 226 of the userequipment 200 may increase or decrease the transport block size TBS by apredefined offset according to a value of the second adjustment fieldTBS_ADJ. In still some embodiments of the inventive concept, the secondadjustment field TBS_ADJ may include at least one bit indicating thechange amount in the transport block size TBS, and the controller 226may reflect the amount of change to the transport block size TBSaccording to the value of the modulation field MO_ADJ. In someembodiments of the inventive concept, the second adjustment fieldTBS_ADJ may include at least one bit indicating the change value of thetransport block size TBS, and the controller 226 may update thetransport block size TBS as the change value according to the value ofthe second adjustment field TBS_ADJ.

FIG. 13 is an example block diagram of a wireless communication device300 in accordance with an example embodiment of the inventive concept.As shown in FIG. 13 , the radio communication apparatus 50 may include,for example, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 310, anapplication specific instruction set processor (ASIP) 330, a memory 350,a main processor 370, and a main memory 390. Two or more of the ASIC310, the ASIP 330, and the main processor 370 may communicate with eachother. At least two of the ASIC 310, the ASIP 330, the memory 350, themain processor 370 and the main memory 390 may be embedded in one chip.

The ASIP 330 is an integrated circuit that is customized for aparticular use and may support a dedicated instruction set for aparticular application and execute instructions included in theinstruction set. The memory 350 may communicate with the ASIP 330 andmay store a plurality of instructions executed by the ASIP 330 as anon-volatile storage device. For example, the memory 350 may include,but is not limited to, any type of memory that is accessible by the ASIP53 such as a random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), tape,magnetic disk, optical disk, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and acombination thereof.

With continued reference to FIG. 13 , the main processor 370 may controlthe wireless communication device 300 by executing a plurality ofinstructions. For example, the main processor 370 may control the ASIC310 and the ASIP 330, and may process data received over a wirelesscommunication network or process a user input to the wirelesscommunication device 300. The main memory 390 may communicate with themain processor 370 and may store a plurality of instructions executed bythe main processor 370 as a non-temporary storage device. For example,the main memory 390 may include, but is not limited to, any type ofmemory that is accessible by the main processor 370 such as a randomaccess memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), tape, magnetic disk,optical disk, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, and a combinationthereof. In addition, the main processor 370 may be an Advanced ReducedInstruction Set Machine (ARM)-based processor.

The wireless communication method according to the example embodiment ofthe inventive concept described above may be performed by at least oneof the components included in the wireless communication device 300 ofFIG. 13 . In some embodiments of the inventive concept, at least one ofoperations of the wireless communication method described above and thesignal processor 120 and/or the signal processor 220 of FIG. 1 may beimplemented as a plurality of executable instructions stored in thememory 350. In some embodiments of the inventive concept, the ASIP 330may perform at least one of the operations of the wireless communicationmethod and at least a part of operations of the signal processor 120and/or the signal processor 220 of FIG. 1 by executing the plurality ofinstructions stored in the memory 350. In some embodiments of theinventive concept, at least one of the operations of the wirelesscommunication method and the signal processor 120 and/or the signalprocessor 220 of FIG. 1 may be implemented in a hardware block designedthrough logic synthesis or the like and included in the ASIC 310. Insome embodiments of the inventive concept, at least one of theoperations of the wireless communication method the signal processor 120and/or the signal processor 220 of FIG. 1 may be implemented as aplurality of instructions stored in the main memory 390, and the mainprocessor 370 may perform at least one of the operations of the wirelesscommunication method and at least a part of operations of the signalprocessor 120 and/or the signal processor 220 of FIG. 1 by executing theplurality of instructions stored in the main memory 390. A person ofordinary skill in the art should understand and appreciate that otherconfigurations are available that are within the spirit of theembodiments of the inventive concept and the scope of the appendedclaims.

In an embodiment of the inventive concept, for example, the userequipment 200 may detect the Modulating and Coding Scheme (MCS) andTransport Block Size (TBS) from a plurality of tables according to anindex received from the base station 100.

In an embodiment of the inventive concept, for example, the userequipment 200 may calculate the MCS/TBS from parameters received fromthe base station 100 based on a predefined formula.

In an embodiment of the inventive concept, for example, the userequipment 200 may combine one or more look-up tables and a formula tocalculate the MCS/TBS.

In an embodiment of the inventive concept, for example, the userequipment 200 identifies the MCS/TBS from the downlink controlinformation (DCI) including the fields of the MCS/TBS.

In an embodiment of the inventive concept, for example, the userequipment 200 may change the MCS/TBS from the DCI including the MCS/TBSadjustment fields.

As described above, the example embodiments of the inventive concepthave been disclosed in the drawings and specification. While theembodiments of the inventive concept have been described herein withreference to specific terms, a person of ordinary skill in the artshould be understood that the terms have been used only for the purposeof describing the technical idea of the inventive concept and not forlimiting the scope of the inventive concept as defined in the claims.Therefore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that variousmodifications and equivalent embodiments are possible without departingfrom the scope of the inventive concept.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of processing a signal received over awireless link, the method comprising: obtaining, by a user equipment,downlink control information; extracting a field in which any valuethereof is a transport block size (TBS) index value, from the downlinkcontrol information; identifying a value of a transport block size,based on a TBS index value extracted from the field; and processing, bya signal processor of the user equipment, the received signal, based onthe identified value of the transport block size.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the identifying of the transport block size comprisescalculating the transport block size from the value of the field, basedon a predefined function, and wherein the predefined function comprisesa monotonically increasing function having a part with a slope greaterthan
 1. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of thetransport block size comprises: detecting the transport block size thatcorresponds to the extracted TBS index value and an identified physicalresource block count by referring to a transport block size tablecomprising a plurality of transport block sizes corresponding to aplurality of pairs of the transport block size index and the physicalresource block count.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprisingobtaining a symbol count per slot, wherein the detecting of thetransport block size comprises detecting whether the transport blocksize corresponds to the extracted TBS index value, an identifiedphysical resource block count, and the obtained symbol count per slot byreferring to a plurality of transport block size tables corresponding tosymbol counts per each of a plurality of slots.
 5. The method of claim3, further comprising obtaining a symbol count per slot information,wherein the detecting of the transport block size comprises: detecting areference transport block size corresponding to the identified transportblock size index and the identified physical resource block count byreferring to the transport block size table; and calculating thetransport block size from the reference transport block size and theobtained symbol count per slot information, based on a predefinedfunction.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the field is a first field,and further comprising extracting a second field corresponding to amodulation order from the downlink control information, and identifyingthe modulation order from the second field.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein the second field has 3 bits to represent QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM,256QAM and 1024 QAM.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracting ofthe field further comprises extracting a further field corresponding toa physical resource block count from the downlink control information,and identifying the physical resource block count from the furtherfield.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the further field has 10 bitsto represent the physical resource block count.
 10. A method forwireless communication, the method comprising: receiving, by a userequipment, downlink control information over a physical control channel;and processing, by a signal processor of the user equipment, a signalreceived over a physical data channel based on the downlink controlinformation, wherein the downlink control information comprises a firstfield corresponding to a modulation order, a second field correspondingto a physical resource block count, and a third field in which any valuethereof is a transport block size (TBS) index value.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, further comprising: extracting at least one of the first,second and third fields from the downlink control information; andidentifying at least one value of the modulation order, the physicalresource block count, and the transport block size, based on a value ofthe extracted at least one first, second and third fields.
 12. A userequipment (UE) for processing a signal received over a wireless link,the UE comprising: memory; and at least one processor configured toexecute instructions read from the memory to: obtain downlink controlinformation; extract a field in which any value thereof is a transportblock size (TBS) index value, from the downlink control information;identify a value of a transport block size, based on a TBS index valueextracted from the field; and process the received signal, based on theidentified value of the transport block size.
 13. The UE of claim 12,wherein the at least one processor is configured to identify thetransport block size by calculating the transport block size from thevalue of the field, based on a predefined function, and the predefinedfunction comprises a monotonically increasing function having a partwith a slope greater than
 1. 14. The UE of claim 12, wherein the fieldis a third field, and the downlink control information further comprisesa first field corresponding to a modulation order and a second fieldcorresponding to a physical resource block count.